Lisa Yee Reading at Books Inc.

What a wonderful time! I just got back from the Lisa Yee reading at Books Inc. Palo Alto. First, I have to give a standing ovation to Jennifer Laughran, who organized this event and is in charge of Not Your Mother’s Book Club. She is such an asset to the Bay Area kidlit community. She is literally on the pulse, if not the pulse, of everything that goes on here.

Speaking of pulse… my pulse is definitely jangling with sugar from all the delicious cupcakes! Mmmm.

Another standing O goes to Lisa Yee, who was her witty, charming self at tonight’s reading, as you can see from the pictures.

After reading a little bit from STANFORD WONG and ABSOLUTELY MAYBE, she spent a little time giving advice to writers, which she tried to say in one, very long word:

Instead of worrying about producing the next New York Times bestseller, she also advises writers to keep some perspective:

Keep your goals small: write one good sentence.

Overall, a very fun and totally memorable evening. More pictures behind the cut and… the winner of the ABSOLUTELY MAYBE contest revealed!

Now here are more pictures from tonight’s reading! Contest winner info is at the bottom, so keep scrolling.

Lisa signing after her reading. Note the pink wig…

Here’s the wig again, this time on Walter, who was doing a dramatic reading!

Lisa with a group of fans.

Lisa and yours truly… note the pink wig again!

And now, for the contest stuff. Instead of me picking names out of a hat, I wanted to let the guest of honor take a draw. Here she is, looking prudently away while she picks through the entries:

And she’s picked one! Whose name is it?

Can you read it? It says Della!

Della is tonight’s big winner of an autographed, personalized copy of ABSOLUTELY MAYBE! While I can’t guarantee the rock star treatment for all of my contests, be sure to enter the next one… it might just be you getting your name picked out of a pile by your favorite author.

Thanks again to Lisa and Jenn. And it’s always nice to run into friends at readings. Here are Debbie and Heidi, who I’ve been bumping into all over the place. (See? I told you there were cupcakes…)

And be sure to add it to your shelf and write a review on Goodreads! Thank you for all your support over the years!

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